Which I am only able to joke about because I 100% believe in Kurogane and know he wouldn’t actually kill Fai. We know too much about how this is all Ashura’s fault to even suspect that Kurogane would actually want to do Fai harm.
FAI DOESN’T THOUGH.
We’ve talked about this before but Kurogane flying at him with a sword is practically everything he has feared right from the start of the journey (with added layers of “I deserve to be hated” and “I don’t deserve to be alive” to make it even sadder). I’m sure the more Fai felt himself grow closer to Kurogane (slowly, gradually, reluctantly) the more he feared the moment when the façade would drop and Kurogane would discover how awful Fai was all along, and then decide to kill him.
And now we HAVE that moment. Fai thinks Kurogane has finally seen the truth and has decided Fai needs to die. He can’t yet comprehend that it’s the opposite; Kurogane has seen the truth and still knows as strong as ever that Fai deserves to be saved.
SO HERE HE COMES TO SAVE HIM WITH VIOLENCE. IN TRUE KUROGANE STYLE.
Have I mentioned that I absolutely love every single thing about this confrontation because oh my goodness is this every single drop of narrative pay off that I’ve been wishing for for years.
Heads up though! Next page is rough in terms of depictions of violence against children (even though I suspect it’s fake) so don’t look if you don’t want to see it today.
This is one of those scenarios where Kurogane could do anything visibly horrible and my reaction will always instinctively go “Kurogane is correct” and then just wait for the explanation to roll around in the next few pages.
KUROGANE KNOWS WHAT’S UP. HE ALWAYS DOES.
Meanwhile please revel in the fact that Fai is kind of yelling his own name here.
Or, more precisely, Fai is yelling for Fai as Kurogane attacked Fai to save Fai.
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Though it’s interesting to see that at the full force of all of Fai’s grief explosion Kurogane can still withstand it (if at significant effort)
Which is just how action scenes go on one hand, but on the other it very nicely matches their personal relationship. No matter how dark and dangerous it gets for Fai Kurogane is still there. The grief of his backstory isn’t enough to drive him back, and no matter what he tries he can’t push Kurogane away. Kurogane can withstand it all.
Which luckily also means he isn’t vaporised into a toaster strudel as Fai destroys the palace around them AND I’LL TAKE IT.
Predictably I LOVE that Kurogane’s reaction is still just “I already told you I don’t care!”
Nevermind that Fai always suspected that the truth would make him change his mind. Nevermind that Fai thought he saw Kurogane change his mind.
To Kurogane, he meant what he said and will always mean what he said. He doesn’t care about Fai’s past, even as it’s broadcast right into his mind by an asshole sorcerer across the room.
WHICH is going to be a bit of a hard thing for Fai to adjust to, but give him time. Kurogane will help him get there. Once he stops forcing him to his knees.
Not like that.
Also is now the time that Kurogane will use his powers of deduction to show that Ashura has been full of shit this whole time? BECAUSE MY SOUL CRIES FOR THIS.
Please Kurogane give me the reasons why Ashura is an abusive manipulator and never cared for anyone but himself. I believe in you!
THANK. YOU. KUROGANE.
I picked this out when we read it in the previous chapter but it’s always so nice and satisfying when Kurogane agrees with me.
Meanwhile Fai sees the shards of his memory floating around him again and (hopefully) will soon discover that there is a reason they were broken shards all this time, and that someone broke his memory in the first place.
Actual evidence that Ashura manipulated this child from the start and restricted his powers for his own personal goals.
Hey remember when I was talking about Ashura swooping in and repeating all of Evil Wolverine’s patterns? Being a powerful sorcerer who only wants to use Fai for his powers to his own personal ends and manipulating his emotions to get him to do exactly what he wants? Yeah! That but again and louder the second time. He’s even doing EXACTLY what Evil Wolverine did and giving Fai an instruction before immediately erasing his memory of it. It’s the same deal, and Fai has been used by every single authority figure in his life.
The only difference is that Ashura went through the charade of pretending he cared for Fai while he did it, and that messed with Fai enough for it to go completely unnoticed all his life.
Also there was the brainwashing. That too.
It’s not yet made entirely clear why Ashura wants Fai to kill him but don’t for a single second think it’s some sort of noble purpose. In RG Veda Ashura was willing to die to screw up things for the entire world around him and I’m sure this will be no different.
After all, if he had any concern for Fai at all he wouldn’t be brainwashing him into having to murder his father figure and leaving him (somehow) even more emotionally scarred than he already is.
So, yeah. Ashura is trash garbage and I’m very happy to be right.
TRC Translation Notes Volume 21 Part 2 (Ch 162-166)
@giniroangou is back with more translation notes! Did the wording of the Celes climax confuse you as much as it did me? Well you’re in luck! Now it all makes sense and is tied together with a neat little bow of closure. Finally, the second secret curse is no longer so secret!
Chapter 162
p.67 - The line translated as, “The guilty must be put to death!” is actually just a further description of the Valerian king’s madness - that he put innocent people to death.
p.78 - This is implicit in the translation, but when Kurogane mentions that it would have been better for Fai to use as much of his magic as possible to make himself stronger, he directly states that this would have made Fai’s curse more difficult to activate.
p.80 - In the translation, Ashura says it “wouldn’t be right” for Fai’s power to grow too great. His original lines feel a little more personal; it would inconvenience him/be troubling if this happened.
p.82 - I don’t know how clear this is in the translation, but the thing Kurogane says will be ripped apart at the seams is Fai’s past. Basically, he knows Ashura wouldn’t show them this past full of easily-spotted holes unless it was part of some larger plan.
Chapter 163
p.89 - The katakana reading of “supia” returns for the word “spell” on this page, and since this time it’s in reference to the sleeping spell Fai’s using, it’s safe to assume that this is what they call spells in general in Celes.
p.97 - Same meaning pretty much, but a more direct translation for Ashura’s line here would be just, “Let’s continue.”
p.99 - Ashura doesn’t actually speculate here that Fai created Sakura. He only references Chii as an artificial human, suggesting that the life in Sakura’s body is thanks to the power of the feather that Fai made Chii out of.
p.103 - Fai literally just yells, “STOP!!” here.
Chapter 164
p.112 - Fai’s instruction to Lava Lamp is even less clear in his original line than in the translation. I wouldn’t interpret this as him directly telling Lava Lamp to leave with Sakura, but merely entrusting Sakura to him. It almost feels more final - even if Lava Lamp and Sakura don’t leave that room, Fai isn’t expecting to be around to take care of her after what he’s about to do.
p.116 - Fai doesn’t specifically say he’s planning to fulfill their wishes. He says: “...Let’s bring this to an end, Your Majesty. Your wish… and mine as well.” My personal interpretation doesn’t differ from the official translation, since I originally assumed each of their wishes at this point to be their own deaths, but you could also read this as Fai giving up on his own wish of resurrecting his brother so I do like the added flexibility of the Japanese lines.
p.123 - Ashura doesn’t say here that Fai was trying to follow his brother into death, but that he wanted to put an end to the life that had forced his brother to die. Then Ashura’s, “You will not die” should be, once again, “You cannot die.”
Chapter 165
p.135 - Ashura’s words to Fai here are even more optimistic in the original text. He asserts that as long as he’s with the others, Fai will be able to overcome his curse.
p.147 - OG Fai’s final request for Yuui isn’t precisely to live free (though that is implied) but simply to become free.
p.150 - This line isn’t exactly mistranslated, but “It was all my fault” feels a bit broad compared the original. More literally, Fai says, “Because of me… this whole time… I never let him rest.”
p.151 - The reason Fai’s curse didn’t come undone isn’t because the wrong person killed Ashura, but because Fai didn’t kill Ashura himself. It amounts to the same thing, but the focus in the original wording is on Fai’s action (or lack thereof) rather than Ashura’s.
p.158 - This was already pointed out, but the result of Fai failing to kill Ashura himself should be that his curse will activate automatically (regardless of Fai’s own will.)
Chapter 166
p.159 - I’m going to respectfully disagree with the translation from Portuguese you were provided with. I would consider the official translation on this page to be correct. That being said, the implication is still that Fei Wang wanted/expected someone else to kill Ashura because he didn’t want the curse to be rendered moot.
p.161 - Fai’s line about not being able to leave could refer to the group as a whole, but it could also refer to himself alone.
The trap Fei Wang mentions here has no effect on Fai and Ashura; it causes harm to anyone aside from those two who uses magic on Celes. This explains Lava Lamp’s strange reaction and subsequent incapacitation once they arrived at the castle. As Fei Wang mentions on the next page, the purpose of this is to prevent any other magic-users from interfering with Fai’s curses.
p.162 - I think Fai’s “None of us” would be better translated as “Not all of us,” or potentially just, “We’re all…”
p.163 - Here Fai tells Lava Lamp, “Don’t let go of Sakura-chan and Mokona.”
p.164 - I’m so bewildered by this “I’m planning a departure!” translation, omg, it’s just super awkward?? “You’re getting out of here,” would be more accurate, or possibly, “We’re getting out of here,” depending on how optimistic you want to read Fai in this moment (it’s hard to tell whether he’s trying to cast his magic on both himself and Kurogane or on Kurogane alone.) It may be precisely this ambiguity that the translator was trying to avoid but… not so much.
p.167 - It might be a little hard to tell from the translation, but Fei Wang’s purpose here (and presumably the reason he put this curse on Fai in the first place) is apparently to eliminate all of Sakura’s companions. He’s noting specifically that Lava Lamp is the only one left, and he will content himself with having only taken out Kurogane and Fai.
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Excuse the absolute horror for a second I need to fix it.
Ok perfect. Moving on!
But behind a cut. Because, you know, Ashura was involved so now there’s gore.
NOW THIS HITS HOME FAR TOO HARD FOR FAI.
It’s every piece of his backstory swinging back around and assaulting his soul all over again.
It’s not true in this case, of course. Fai’s twin is dead, so the curse can’t be continuing – and yet here is all the evidence he never knew he had to fear. Once again a sovereign has lost their grip on reality and murdered an entire nation only to lay the blame at his feet. Except this time he can’t even blame the curse. The only thing he can blame here is himself.
Of course that’s garbage and we know it. Ashura is Ashura and that’s not Fai’s fault, but to his guilt ridden mind all of this happened purely because he was present and for no other reason. It’s not even his fault for thinking that because he was trained to think that from birth. If anything this is just confirmation that he’s every bit as damned as he always feared and now ANOTHER entire world has suffered because of it.
Meanwhile Ashura is SMILING AT HIM and oh my god I cannot stand this man.
